Crew SC players Michael Parkhurst, Ben Speas, Chad Barson and Tyson Wahl, along with Brand Ambassador Frankie Hejduk, pitched in at The Salvation Army’s Christmas Cheer event, helping families find the perfect gifts for their kids and food for the holidays. Members of the Crew SC Front Office staff also donated their time and labor to help make local families' holiday a little brighter.

Crew SC forward Kei Kamara paid a visit to Medina Middle School today to speak to the students about the importance of pursing their dreams and focusing on academics. Kamara shared his personal story about how sports helped him adjust to life in America after emigrating from his native Sierra Leone and achieve his goals.

In partnership with the United Way of Central Ohio, Crew defender Josh Williams recently surprised children of the Children’s Hunger Alliance’s after school program with books donated by Crew fans earlier in the season during the Get a Kick out of Reading book drive. Williams spoke to the kids about the importance of reading and staying in school, and helped them pick out books to take home.

Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter, Assistant Coach Josh Wolff and Crew Brand Ambassador Frankie Hejduk joined Local Matters for its fourth annual Harvest Ball to help raise over $100,000 for its critical, life-changing programs.

Local Matters has six years’ experience transforming communities in Columbus, Ohio through increased access to, affordability of and education about healthful foods. They have impacted over 15,000 lives with our life-changing programs to decrease obesity and diet-related disease, and combat food insecurity.

In 2015, Local Matter plans to expand its life-changing programming to reach over 10,000 individuals annually, who are at-risk of hunger and diet-related disease.

If you would like to support the team on Sunday, wear Crew gear, or -- if you prefer -- LampStrong T-shirts are available in the Crew Gear Store for a $25 donation to support Team LampStrong runners who will be running in lime green LampStrong Foundation tech shirts.

Lampson and the Crew thanks all runners and others who have supported the LampStrong Foundation.

Crew players Tyson Wahl, Matt Walker, Wil Trapp and Aaron Schoenfeld teamed-up with Crew Cat and children from the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio Monday for an afternoon of playing games and hanging out at Dave & Buster’s. The Black & Gold also worked with DSACO earlier this week when Crew Stadium hosted its annual Buddy Walk on Sunday, September 21.